If The Night Comes (And The Night Will Come)
by AshenDream
Summary: The Power Rangers have won their first battle, but the war is not over. Rita wasn't lying when she said that others would come for the Zeo Crystal - something dark and malevolent, an ancient evil from another galaxy, has set its sights on Earth, and the Rangers are all that stands between it and global -and eventually, galactic -annihilation. Eventual Trini/Kimberly. MMPR elements.
1. We Could Be Heroes

_the top of my google doc for this fic is that gif of the OG mighty morphin power rangers lookin like badasses in sunglasses_

* * *

Far above the ruined streets and blasted-out buildings of what had once been Angel Grove's main street, the moon blazed with white light. On this particular section of road, the lights had yet to be restored after the catastrophic battle of nearly a month before. Ruined storefronts presided over a road that was still rough and full of holes, shadows like great fingers reaching to caress the shattered pavement.

A girl and her friends huddled on a stretch of sidewalk that had remained undamaged. Middle schoolers at the oldest. Young enough to not recognize the danger but still old enough to know better. They whispered and giggled amongst themselves, because what harm could there possibly be out here? The wicked witch was dead, or so they said. But they'd all heard the stories.

It was common knowledge in this place that the night was not to be trusted - that remnants of evil magic still danced amongst the stones, that one was as likely as not to meet one of those horrific golems, fresh from the inanimate earth. The name "putty" had stuck, though no one knew from where the appellation had first come. They were hardly as harmless as the name would seem to suggest.

"Amy, are you listening?" Asked one of the girls, elbowing the tallest among them. "This is important."  
The tall one - Amy - frowned, gazing out into the streets. "Sorry, I thought… I thought I heard something."

One of the others laughed, though the one who had spoken didn't look amused. "We don't have much time out here. Stop jumping at shadows, or we won't be back in time."

Amy shook her head, then smiled. "You're right, I'm being silly. Let's get going."

The small group started to walk, chattering aimlessly amongst themselves, unaware of what was happening behind them - unaware of the pebbles on the ground beginning to rumble, to roll along ground that wasn't sloped, to begin to gather and coalesce. A rocky hand formed in a pothole and reached up to the sky, straining for a moment as dark energies swirled in the air. The arm twisted, and snapped downward, and the palm hit the ground with a solid _crunch_.

The girls whirled, startled by the sudden sound, and for the first few seconds they were too stunned even to move.

With the harsh sound of rock against rock, the hand pushed and strained, and something seemed to click. With a motion like a swimmer hoisting himself out of a pool, a great, malformed beast of stone emerged from the cracked asphalt. It stood there for a moment, gazing up at the moon, and seemed to slump in something like disappointment.

Then one of the girls screamed, and the creature's apparent confusion snapped to rage. It lurched forward, unsteady on uneven legs, reaching out to grab and hit and smash.

The girls finally broke and ran, moving in a pack away from the monster. As it picked up speed and momentum, other hands broke from the pavement and started pulling themselves up. One, then two, then a dozen.

The girls screamed, but no one came, and the putties were faster. They couldn't corner quite as well as a little girl, but once they got up to running speed they could outrun a human over open ground, and the girls knew it.

Guttural roars filled the streets, echoing between the shattered walls. The girls rounded a corner, and for the briefest moment, they were out of sight of the monsters. For most, the instinct was to keep running, but Amy skidded to a halt, with a hissed "Over here!" The other girls turned, eyes wide and panicked, and Amy shouldered her way through a half-broken side entrance. The door ground open, and the pack of children darted inside, just as the first putty came into view.

Amy pressed herself back against the wall, just out of sight of the doorway, and held her breath, raising a finger to her lips to her friends to do the same. They did, though more than a few of them shook with terror.

Heavy footfalls crashed just outside, in the alleyway they'd just vacated, as more and more of the creatures gathered. Did they know where the girls were? Or were they confused at having lost their prey?

Then another, louder noise - a series of thumps on the roof overhead, and muffled voices.

"Here they are, just like Zordon said." At least, Amy _thought_ he said Zordon, but that wasn't anything. The voice was male, but heavily distorted with a robotic filter.

"I don't, uh, want to make a big deal, but has Zordon ever told us to go fight putties when there _weren't_ putties?" This voice was also male, and covered in the same distortion, but less self-assured, Amy thought. "That's what'd be out of the ordinary."

"Okay, thanks for the input, Blue, but I didn't mean it like-"

"Come on, you're making so much noise that they probably already know where we are," hissed a woman's voice. "We keep trying to get the drop on them, but you guys can't keep your mouths shut."

Outside, the stony rustling came to a stop.

Amy took a shaky breath, looking from her friends to the door and back. A few of them were glancing upward, enraptured by the conversation overhead. It didn't take a genius to figure out who these newcomers were.

"I say we just go kick their asses," said a third man. "We've never had trouble with them before, so long as we've been morphed. We don't need to tiptoe around this, Red."

The first voice sighed. "Alright, just, look, let's come up with a plan, at least. There are…" He started to mumble, and Amy couldn't quite make out the words. She scooted closer to the doorway.

"You know what, actually?" asked a second woman. "I just decided fuck this."

There was a chorus of voices yelling things like no, and wait, and then an angel descended from heaven to kick some ass. A glowing yellow meteor in the shape of a human hurtled down from above, landing directly on a putty in the middle of the crowd. The thing exploded, and from the cloud of dust emerged what could only be one of the saviors of Angel Grove. The putties stared at the intruder, as if trying to make sense of what they were seeing, as if they hadn't quite realized that they were already down one of their number.

The yellow-armored girl tilted her head first one way, then the other, then assumed a fighting stance. "Anyone else?"

From above, a voice whooped. "Crazy Yellow! That was awesome!" A pair of boots clumped to the edge of the roof as if taking a running leap, then hesitated at the last moment. "Wait, wait, I gotta, I gotta…"

In the street, all was still motionless. The calm before the storm.

The silence was broken by a synthesized voice from above, emotionless and solemn: " _When it's time to party, we will party hard."_

"What-" said the first woman's voice, and the rest was drowned out by a sudden explosion of power chords and a thunderous drumline.

Amy flinched, and the voice shouted joyously again. A moment latter, a second figure hurtled down to the pavement beside Yellow, one knee and one fist cracking the ground in a power landing, punctuated by the heavy beat of the drums. He slowly raised himself to his feet, lifted his black-armored hands, and laughed wildly. "Power Rangers!"

That broke the putties' trance, and as harsh vocals broke out over the heavy riffs, they surged forward in a gravelly tsunami of rock. The two heroes were ready, though. Instantly back to back, their hands moved like blurs of neon, their footwork impeccable and deadly. The putties couldn't even get close.

"What's going on?" moaned one of the girls, and Amy shushed her, her eyes wide.

In the moment that Amy had looked away, the other three figures had joined the fray.

Red was holding what looked like an actual, honest-to-god _sword,_ and it seemed to cut through putties like a hot knife through butter. He swung once in a motion not dissimilar to an uppercut, bisecting one putty, then gracefully leapt up onto the crumbling monster, one foot on each half. Before the dying putty was even done falling, he was soaring through the air again, flipping gracefully to strike another monster.

Pink ducked a swing from one putty, then a grab from another. The two rushed her from either side, and she dropped into an improbable split. The putties collided above her, and they splinted, staggering back with pieces of their faces ground away. Pink shouted, planted her hands on the ground, and lashed out with both legs in opposite directions. To either side, a rocky leg snapped, and the wounded putties crashed down to earth.

Blue grabbed a putty by the arm and twisted, heaving the great stone beast over his head. "Black!" It tumbled through the air, end over end, and found the black figure's fist on the other side. It crunched down, the magic holding it together dissipating. Blue whooped, then groaned. "This music is really distracting, man!"

The black one cackled, driving his heel through another stony face. "I know, isn't it awesome?"

In less time than it took the music overhead to hit the chorus, half the putties were down. The rest seemed to lack survival instinct, and each rushed a different target, as if they stood even a modicum of a chance. By now, the other girls had crowded up to the side door, and were peering out as well - mesmerized by the graceful movements of the superheroes, the way they effortlessly soared through the air and laid waste to the evil monsters that had threatened them.

The second half of the fight was over almost before it had begun. Red and Yellow had dispatched their putties in the first few seconds, and had turned to assist their friends. Blue uppercut his putty hard enough to shatter one of its heads; it staggered back, turning, and Red lopped off the other with an overhead swing. Black, meanwhile, seemed to be toying with his putty - dipping and diving and staying just out of reach, but never actually swinging back.

"Pink! I got an idea!" Yellow ran directly at the other female warrior's back, shouting as she did. "Heads up!"

Pink looked around wildly. "Look out for what? Yellow, look out for- Gah!" Yellow leapt through the air, flipping forward as she did so. She planted her hands firmly on Pink's shoulders, and it seemed like Pink only barely managed to keep her balance. Her momentum carrying her forward, Yellow whirled through the air like a beyblade, leading with the heel of her boot. The putty had the briefest moment to look surprised before Yellow's leg came shooting down to shatter what passed for the monster's skull. She pushed off again, reversing into a backflip, and landed gracefully at Pink's side.

The putty wavered, staggered forward a step, and fell.

"Now _that's_ what I'm talkin' about!" Yellow cheered, raising a hand expectantly. "C'mon, that was bad _ass_."

Even through the opaque helmet, the onlookers could tell that Pink rolled her eyes before slapping the other woman's hand. "For the record, a warning doesn't do much good if you don't tell me what I should be watching out for."

"Point taken."

Red stepped up to the two women, his sword apparently dematerializing. He put a hand on each of their shoulders, and gave them a solemn nod.

Meanwhile, Black got a little too cocky, and a heavy fist to the helmet sent him soaring through a glass window into a building across of where the girls were hiding. One of them screamed in sheer reaction, and the other heroes' heads all jerked in their direction.

"Are you-" started Red, but he paused. "Actually, wait." All three of them turned as one and punched the last remaining putty, who promptly shattered into a hundred pieces. They turned back, and Yellow and Pink were laughing about something. "Are you alright in there?"

Amy glanced back at her friends, then back out at the rubble of the fight. The danger seemed to have passed, and, well, everyone knew that these were the good guys. Even if no one knew a thing about them. She nodded, then stepped out into the alley. "We're okay. Just…" It was only then that she realized her hands were shaking, and she shoved them into her pockets. "Scared. Thank you for saving us." She felt strangely calm. Detached. Someone sniffled behind her, and she blinked.

The blue one stepped forward, "It's not safe to be out after dark. That's when the magical residue is strongest. At least, that's what Alpha says. The light is cleansing, you see, it-"

Red put a hand on Blue's shoulder. "They don't need to know all that, buddy."'

Blue hesitated, then nodded. "Right, right. Sorry, man."

As they spoke, Black staggered out from the building he'd just put a hole in, grumbling. His shiny armor was covered in a thin layer of dust, and as the girls watched, a crack in the helmet seemed to heal itself. Blue pulled away from Red's touch, and jogged over to check on his friend.

Red glanced back at the rest of his team. "Pink, Yellow. Can you get these girls somewhere safe? We've left the other group run wild for too long. Who knows what kind of trouble they've gotten into."

Pink and Yellow shared a glance, then nodded. "Right," they said in unison, and Pink held out a hand to the girls. "Come on. We'll get you home." She paused. "You might have to tell us where home is, though."

Black slapped Yellow on the back, shot her a pair of finger guns, and in a single leap, the other heroes were gone, the music going with them.

Amy looked back at the others, then nodded. As blasted as her brain felt, the rest looked even worse. "Um. Yeah, but it's… not that close."

Yellow cocked her head, putting a hand on her hip. "No problem, kiddos." Her voice turned mischievous. "Hope you're not afraid of heights."

Pink shook her head. "We're not taking them in the pterodactlyl."

"But-"

"We are _not._ There's no room in the cockpit, and they're not going to hang onto the roof while we're a hundred feet in the air." She tapped a few times at her wrist, then raised it to her mouthpiece. "Alpha, send the sabertooth to my position." Something that Amy couldn't understand responded. Pink nodded and glanced back at Yellow.

"Fine, fine, if you want to take all the fun out of it," Yellow muttered, gesturing for the rescued girls to follow, and turned back to walk toward the street.

The girls followed, leaving Pink behind.

Pink sighed, throwing up her hands. "Why am _I_ always the buzzkill?"

"Because Red's not here to be the responsible one!" Yellow called back, blowing Pink a kiss before turning a corner and disappearing. "He's rubbing off on you!"

Pink stood alone for a low moment. "Responsible one," she muttered after a moment. "None of us assholes are responsible." Finally she sighed again, kicked a bit of loose rubble, and followed.

* * *

 _cold_

 _cold_

 _but not cold like_

 _before_

 _ocean_

 _cold like_

 _empty_

 _cold like_

 _pain_

 _drifting_

 _in silence, a voice_

 _a voice filled with hate_

 _anger_

 _rage_

 _a kindred spirit then_

 _ **Repulsa.**_

 _repulsa_

… _.rita_

 _that was her name_

 _she remembers that much as she drifts in the void_

 _ **Do you still desire the crystal, Repulsa?**_

 _the crystal_

 _the zeo crystal_

 _yes_

 _that would be wonderful_

 _ **Retrieve it. Destroy the Earth. Destroy any who would oppose you.**_

 _ **Prepare the way for my coming.**_

 _who are you_

 _ **You may call me Zedd.**_

 _zedd_

 _ **Take the Zeo Crystal, and I will make you a true empress of evil.**_

 _images, then_

 _images of glorious destruction_

 _devastation on a galactic scale_

 _the rangers, dead and broken at her feet_

 _that irritating little robot, twisted and shattered_

 _zordon_

 _zordon…._

 _oh the torments she would bring upon him_

 _the horrors unimaginable_

 _ **Now. Awaken.**_

And 230,000 miles above the Earth, Rita Repulsa opened her eyes.

* * *

 _Hi! Welcome to my fic!_

 _I spent six months yelling about how bad the Power Rangers movie looked and how sure I was that it would be awful and now I've seen it twice and I'm writing fic for it. OOPS._

 _The original title of this fic was going to be "the songs on the radio are okay" because I liked twenty one pilots before it was cool, but I thought that didn't work as well for a fic about all the Rangers as it would for something that was more laser focused on Trini/Kimberly._

 _Title of the fic is a lyric from the song "In Our Bedroom After The War" by Stars! Chapter title is from Unstoppable by , but if you're hear you probably remember that from the movie._

 _Let me know what you think! Leave a review!_


	2. It Just Takes Some Time

so guess which stupid asshole has been forgetting to update on fanfic

(it's me)

(i'm the asshole)

I'll probably stagger the rest over the next couple days until we're all caught up. 3

* * *

The command center smelled like baking cookies.

This was much more ominous than it sounded.

The five rangers stood as one at the top of the steps, unmorphed, staring up into the dimly lit hall. The warm, homey scent wafted all around them, tickling at their appetites. None of them spoke.

Somewhere, from deep within the bowels of the ship, a haunting humming drifted into earshot.

Billy was the first to break the silence. "We can always run? I'm good for running."

"He would know," Trini replied quietly. "He's in tune with the ship. He already knows we're here."

Kim groaned.

Jason shook his head. "He's trying really hard, guys."

Zack shrugged, grinning crookedly. "That smells like chocolate, and I'm lactose intolerant. Pretty sure I'm safe on this one."

Trini glanced to the side at Kim. "Suicide pact?"

Kim nodded solemnly, then held out her hand. "It's been a pleasure, Trini."

Trini returned the nod, giving Kim's hand a firm shake. "Likewise, Pink."

The two dissolved into giggles.

"Hey, uh, that's a joke, right?" Billy looked from the girls to Jason and back. "I mean, they're laughing. So, joke?"

"That's right, man. It's jokes. That good nihilism shit." Zack clapped him on the back, then winced as Billy tensed. "Ah, sorry, man. My bad."

Billy took a short breath and waved a hand. "No problem, no problem. It happens all the time."

Jason, meanwhile, was rubbing at his eyes. "Come on, Trini. That's not funny."

Trini pouted, sticking out her lower lip melodramatically and huffing. Kim snorted, and Jason gave her a long suffering look. "Kim…"

Kimberly grinned up at him. "Yes, Jason?"

"Don't…" He waved his hand vaguely. "Don't encourage her."

Kim rolled her eyes. "Alright, _dad_ ," she replied, and high fived Trini.

At the sound of the high five echoing through the cavernous hold, the distant humming stopped. " _Rangers!_ " A rapid clanking approached.

"Is it too late for the suicide pact thing?" Billy whispered.

* * *

It wasn't that Kimberly didn't like Alpha 5. He was an unsettling little dude to look at, sure, and he could be a bit… enthusiastic when it came to his duties, but he really did try to make the rangers feel comfortable.

The operative word was 'try.'

"It's great to see you all here in one piece," he chirped, as he went down the line of rangers. There was a tray balanced precisely in one of his weird little hands, stacked high with still-gooey chocolate chip cookies. As he passed each of them, he presented a cookie.

Kim, Trini, Jason, and Billy each took theirs with trepidation. Zack cheerfully waved his away. "Man, Alpha, I'm really sorry, but I can't eat chocolate. Allergies, you know. I'd die."

Alpha blinked his eyelights, but he seemed to take it in stride. "That's a real shame! I guess I'll have to make something extra special for you, next time!"

Trini snorted.

Zack's grin turned brittle. "Sounds great, man. Totally."

The little robot nodded happily, then turned to the other rangers. "Well? What are you waiting for? Eat up!"

The four of them who had been unlucky enough to be born able to digest chocolate looked uncomfortably at each other, then took a bite in unison.

Something was horribly wrong the minute the cookie touched her tongue, and Kim had to fight down an overpowering urge to spew it back out immediately as all the moisture in her entire body was sucked out of her in an instant. Next to her, Trini's eyes widened, and she froze mid-chew. Jason looked as though he'd just seen something beautiful and irreplaceable destroyed. _His innocence, or maybe just his zest for life,_ Kim thought. Billy was the only one of them who failed his constitution saving throw; he coughed violently, crumbs flying free from his mouth.

Zack looked like he was having the time of his life.

Alpha looked at Billy, concerned, while the other three forced a swallow.

Billy had the good grace to look sheepish. "I choked?"

While Alpha's attention was divided, Kim stuffed the rest of the cookie, melty chocolate and all, into her pocket. Trini, knowing a good idea when she saw it, mimicked Kim with her own cookie and her own pocket. "That was…. delicious, Alpha," Kim said lamely. "I ate the whole thing!"

Alpha looked delighted. "There's more if you want them! Oh, Jason, you didn't finish yours!"

Jason hadn't thought so quickly, and he stood there with the traitorous cookie in his hand like a deer in the headlights. "Uh…"

Trini smiled lazily. "Yeah, Jase, don't you like it? Alpha slaved over those."

Jason shot her a look. "Yeah, it's great," he said through gritted teeth. "My favorite kind of cookie." He looked down at the cookie, sighed, and took another bite. Quiet munching noises filled the hall.

"Salt!" hissed Trini at Kim while Jason continued to suffer. "That was a solid block of salt!"

Kimberly shuddered a little. "I think I'm dying of dehydration, now," she whispered back. "Got that water bottle?" She winked.

"Damn it, I feel like I just got forcefed the entire Dead Sea, Kim. What the hell, how do you fuck up a cookie that bad?" Alpha glanced over at them, and the two girls beamed at him.

"I don't think he has a recipe," Kim replied as soon as he looked away. "Or taste buds. Where does he even get the ingredients?"

Thankfully, they were spared having to continue their charade, as a tired but authoritative voice rang out through the corridors. "Rangers, see me as soon as possible. There's something you should hear."

* * *

Zordon's enormous, craggy face dominated the center of what the rangers had taken to calling (always with mock reverence) The Wall. He looked even more tired than usual; even through the odd, slightly fluid motion of the metal pegs, there were bags under his eyes, and his cheeks seemed to sag.

The five rangers stood in a loose group by the central viewing globe, looking up at him. Mixed feelings for their mentor aside, it made Kim more than a little nervous seeing the big blue head at anything less than perfect condition.

Jason was the first to speak. "What is it, Zordon?"

Billy glanced back to where Alpha was lurking, then up at the wall. "Yeah, you don't look so good, man. You feeling okay?"

"Virus?" Zack suggested helpfully. "Computer virus?"

Zordon didn't even acknowledge Zack's comment. "As much as I feel anything, these days," he grumbled. "Rangers, there's been a… complication."

"A complication?" Kim asked, her brow furrowing. "That doesn't sound good."

Zordon nodded down at them. "This… bond I have with the ship's matrix is… unprecedented. As far as either I or Alpha knows, it has never even been attempted before."

"Some of my best work," Alpha said modestly from behind them.

"It was hardly a consideration when we thought that this state was temporary, but as time has passed, it has become increasingly clear that I am burning power at a significant rate." He looked at each of them in turn. "Alpha is going to have to shut me down for a time to jury rig a solution."

"Shut you down?" Jason asked. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"It's really not as bad as it sounds," Alpha added. "At least, as long as something else doesn't go catastrophically wrong."

"It won't. Rita is out of the picture, and even _she_ couldn't survive the vacuum of space this long. Anything of sufficient power to threaten the Crystal, our sensors would pick up long before they posed a real threat."

"Well," Billy said. "I mean, I don't know much about big… fancy…" He waved his hands vaguely. "Alien computers, but I'd guess Zordon is stored somewhere secure in the ship's matrix. ROM, not RAM. Shutting him down shouldn't be that bad."

Alpha snapped his fingers. "Precisely! There won't be any memory or personality loss."

There was an uncomfortable twisting feeling in Kim's gut. "How long will this take, though?"

"Hard to say," Alpha mused. "Hours? Days? Not more than a year."

"A _year?"_ The rangers all said at once.

"Year? Sorry, sorry. Week. I meant week.". Alpha chuckled awkwardly. "There are a lot of systems that aren't being used anymore; it might be as easy as rerouting power from the drives to the mainframe."

They all shared an uneasy look. "What happens if you don't take a nap?" Zack asked.

"I could shut down permanently," Zordon said gravely. "In essence, I could die."

Zordon had been present for their entire time as rangers, Kim thought. He'd always been there to keep an eye out for them, scan for threats and putty attacks, and to offer advice as one who had once been a ranger himself. Even if it was only for a short time… they'd be on their own. "What if something happens? Will we be able to wake you up?"

"Alpha will be able to reactivate me at any time," he said. "That said, this can only be postponed for so long. I will have to undergo this procedure at some point in the near future if I want to continue to provide support. And believe me, you still need me."

"No one's arguing that, Zordon," Jason said in as placating a way as he could manage. "I think we're just a little worried about being on our own if something happens."

"What about our powers?" Billy asked, a little nervously. "We'll still have those, right?"

"Your powers will be unaffected as will your ability to morph." Zordon sighed. "This is the best time for me to go dark. I'm… not any happier about it than you are."

Billy glanced around at the other rangers. "Zordon's right, guys. I'd rather he recharge when all we've got to deal with are rogue putties than when some big monster is bearing down on us."

Trini folded her arms over her chest. "We're the power rangers. We'll be okay for a few days, dad."

Zordon looked down at each of them in turn. "I will be back as soon as I am able. Until then, I trust you with the defense of the crystal."

They all nodded, some more reservedly than others. "We'll hold down the fort while you're gone," Jason assured.

Zordon nodded, and for the briefest of moment, the great alien head looked almost… afraid. The flash of emotion was gone as quickly as it appeared, his face retreating back into its mask of calm.

 _Is he afraid that something_ will _happen?_ Kim wondered. _Or is he afraid that he won't wake back up again?_

Zordon nodded to Alpha. "You may begin. Rangers…" He hesitated. "Let the power protect you." And with that, the lights in the command center went dark, the great wall fading into smoothness. Only dim auxiliary lights remained.

For the first time since their power coins had reactivated the ship, the command center was completely silent.

 _Kind of creepy._ Kim felt strange, like standing in a stranger's bedroom while they weren't there. Or a haunted house.

Zack clapped once, the sharp sound echoing off the metal walls. "Now that that's over, who wants to go through dad's shit and see if he's got anything embarrassing?"

"Hell yeah," Trini said. "Maybe he's got some cool alien booze we can break into."

Alpha made a sound like clearing his throat. "I'm still right here, you know."

The night sky twinkled overhead, a thousand times a thousand stars gleaming like diamonds set in pitch blackness. The moon was like a lantern illuminating the quarry around them as they sat, their legs dangling down over empty space. Far below them was the underground pool that hid Zordon's ship. The command center. Within its tomb of rock and metal, Alpha worked diligently to keep Zordon from fading away, its dark halls lit only by secondary power and Alpha's eyelights.

Once Zordon had shut down, there wasn't much left for the Rangers. Sure, they could hang out in the living space they'd worked to establish in an old unused room, but why would they? It was a beautiful night. They talked and laughed and sang snatches of dumb pop songs, letting the sounds of nature surround them.

These moments, after the fighting had been left behind, when they could all just let themselves _be_ themselves… These were what she lived for. The person she'd been two months ago would have laughed at the idea of this cubscout bullshit. That person was a stranger, now.

Zack had been the first to leave; he'd seemed to want to stay, but his concern over his mother had finally won out. Apparently, today had not been a good day for her, and he didn't want her to be alone. Jason and Billy had offered to come stay the night, but Zack had laughed and waved a hand and said, "Nah, I think I'm good tonight. But soon, yeah? My mom would love you guys." He turned to go, then glanced back at them. "She, uh. She said…" He laughed sheepishly. "Man, this is dumb. But she said that the last month and a half… Since I met you guys…"

Jason stepped up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We know, man. You don't have to say it."

Billy nodded. "Yeah, if you're saying what I think you're saying? This superhero stuff has been good for all of us."

Zack nodded, and fell silent. "You guys." He stepped back, pointing with both hands at the group of them. "You're good." He turned quickly. He tried to make it look casual, but in the moonlight, Kim caught the shimmer in his eyes.

"Give your mom a hug for me." Kim called, and Zack raised a hand in acknowledgement without stopping.

Billy was next. "Hey, Jason? I know this is like, baby stuff, but I'm exhausted." He grinned. "Besides, my momma's not gonna be happy if she checks on me, and I'm not there… again."

Jason laughed. "It's not baby shit, Billy. We all need to rest sometimes." He gathered up his bag and slung it over one shoulder, then gestured with his head. "C'mon. I'll drive you back."

Billy scrambled to his feet. "I'll buy burgers, I'm starving."

"Deal," Jason said. He gently bopped Kim and Trini on their heads on the way by. "You ladies need a ride?"

Trini glared up at him for the touch, but she couldn't maintain it long before she broke into a soft smile. "Nah, you go on ahead. I think I'm gonna stay out here a while. Enjoy the view, yeah?"

Kim nodded. "I drove here too, remember? I don't want to leave my car all the way out here tonight."

They all said their goodbyes, and then it was just Kim and Trini, sitting side by side as trees rustled behind them and the wind gently blew. Neither of them spoke.

This was another thing that the old her would have hated. Silence. She'd always needed noise. Chatter or music or something to fill her head. Anything to fill the void her self loathing left behind. Not that that particular problem was gone, these days, but it came in waves, and not being alone helped.

After a while, Kim lay back on the stone, staring up at the moon. "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?"

Trini seemed surprised that she'd spoken. "Yeah, it is." With a soft rustling, she lay back as well, black hair spread around her soft face like a halo.

Kim watched from the corner of her eye and couldn't help but smile. The rock was hard under her head, so she shifted to use her forearm as a pillow.

"Do you ever…" Trini started, then trailed off with a frown.

Kim tilted her head to look at Trini more openly, concerned.

Trini bit her lip, clearly thinking. "Do you ever regret it?"

"Regret what? This?"

Trini nodded, not meeting her eyes. "The whole power rangers thing. Or… I mean, not that I guess. Opening up. Telling us what you did."

A familiar weight settled in Kim's chest. "It's… not easy," she said finally. "I still want to throw up when I think about it. I want to throw up even more when I think about… I don't know. It feels like I let you guys down before I even met you. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," Trini said, eyes fixed firmly on the sky. "It makes perfect sense."

The two of them sat in companionable silence for a time. Kim wanted to say something, to make sure her friend was okay, but what was there to say? Trini wasn't exactly the type to respond to straight up questions.

"I don't regret it, though," Kim said finally. "I think I needed to talk about it. Keeping that all in…" She searched for the words. "It was eating me alive."

Trini bit her lip again, hard enough that Kim was afraid she'd draw blood.

When it was clear no more words were forthcoming, Kim rolled onto her side, facing her friend. Without a moment's hesitation she took Trini's hand in both of hers, squeezing it. "Trini, whatever's bothering you, I'm here. We're _all_ here."

Trini smiled weakly. "You know, if someone had told me a month ago that my best friend would be the queen bee of Angel Grove, I'd have laughed them out of the room."

Kim smiled encouragingly. "I never expected my best friend would be someone like you, Trini."

"Is that what I am?" Her voice was small, and she finally looked Kim straight in the eye.

"My best friend?" Kim blinked, and an entirely different heaviness pulled at her heart. "Of course. Would I say that if I didn't mean it?"

Trini laughed, and it only sounded a little like tears. She put her other hand on Kim's and squeezed. "I'm being stupid. Forget it."

With a return squeeze, Kim nodded. "It's forgotten. You're still a big tough badass."

Trini snorted. "The _most_ badass."

As cool as the night air was, by the time they went their separate ways to get a few brief hours of sleep before the dawn, Kim was sure they both felt warm.


	3. Run Run Blood

Rita's head pounded.

The first thing she became aware of, after the pain, was that she was on solid ground. She hadn't expected that.

Was she dead?

The last thing she'd felt had been the air leaving her lungs and finding nothing to inhale, frost forming over her delicate eyes. She'd weaved a quick enchantment to seal her life within her, the way she had all those millions of years ago. She would stop thinking, but she would survive until something changed.

The problem was she had no idea how much time had passed.

The second thing she noticed was that far above her the Earth loomed.

The moon, then.

 _ **Awaken.**_

Her lungs screamed, but she _was_ on the moon, there was no air, and for a moment, that certainty overwhelmed her. She had been revived, only to die again. A third time.

Then she inhaled, sure the atmosphere would be little better than cold vacuum, but… there was oxygen. Breathable air.

For the first minute, that was all she thought about. She pushed herself into a sitting position, her first wild breaths devolving into a loud, dry coughing fit. She doubled over, inadvertently sucked in a cloud of free-floating grey dust, and nearly gagged.

That struck her as funny, and by the time the coughing stopped, she was nearly screaming with laughter.

She was _alive._ Zordon could still pay. The crystal could still be hers. She could-

The crystal.

The… voice.

The laughing stopped as abruptly as it had come. It… had been like no voice she could remember. The words had hammered into her skull like an ice pick; her own power, even _with_ the coin, was dim as a firefly next to its incandescence. And as surely as she knew that, she knew that he could snuff her out with no more than a wave of his hand.

Zedd.

She'd never heard that name before. But even the thought of it filled her with dread. She started to shake, sitting there in the dust, gritting her teeth in shame and anger. How dare _anyone_ make her tremble in her boots like a mewling child? She was _Rita Repulsa._ She would destroy and remake worlds. The rage burned hotter, heating her core, smoke rising from her emerald eyes. "I am no one's puppet, Zedd! " She shrieked, defiant. I will destroy this world, but I do it for myself! Not for you!"

 _ **Perhaps I was not clear as to the nature of this relationship.**_

The voice in her mind was harsh. Guttural. Like nails on a chalkboard but lower, more menacing. Something dark bubbled beneath the surface, something infinite and terrible and nauseating.

Rita snapped her fingers, and her staff - damaged, splintered, but mostly whole - sprung into being, summoned from wherever it had been lost to. She raised it to the sky, and impossible black clouds began to gather around her. Lightning flashed down all around her, throwing up explosions of grey dust and black smoke. "I am my own! My power is my own!" Her eyes darted wildly from one corner to the other. Around her was a flat plain of dead grey. Nothing else. "You cannot take this from me!"

 _ **You speak because I will it.**_

Her jaw clamped shut of its own accord, hard enough to crack teeth and send pain shooting through her jaw. She screamed through her teeth, not out of pain or fear, but out of sheer _hate._

 _ **You breathe because I will it.**_

The life-giving air vanished mid-scream. Her eyes widened, and her free hand went to her throat. She choked, lungs immediately burning, and sank to her knees. She could feel veins in her forehead standing out as she strained, but whether Zedd had closed her windpipe or sucked the air from her surroundings, it didn't seem to matter. The lightning strikes doubled in intensity as her power ran out of control, bolstered by her raging emotions, shattering the very rock of the ground around her, throwing up plumes of debris a hundred feet high.

 _ **You LIVE because I will it.**_

Pain like she'd never imagined, pain that made the hurt of waking feel like a mosquito bite lanced through every fiber of her being. She screamed again, and as her staff clattered to the ground, the clouds dissipated. After a moment that felt like ten thousand lucid years, she was surrounded by stillness, and the sounds of agony that she soon realized were her own.

 _ **I am Zedd.**_

 _ **You have potential, but I will not tolerate insubordination. You may serve me and be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams, or you will die, and before you pass the agony you experience will make this moment seem the pleasant dream of a child.**_

 _ **And it will be exquisite.**_

As soon as it had come, the pain was gone along with the bonds holding her jaw shut, and she could breathe again. She gasped, gasped until her mind came back from whatever hole it had crawled into to tolerate the pain. She hated. She hated beyond words, beyond rational thought, the power this Zedd seemed to have over her.

 _ **Do we have an understanding?**_

 _I'll do anything to get my revenge,_ she thought, but she was too weak to speak the words. There was silence for a long minute.

 _ **DO WE HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING, REPULSA?**_

The mental force of the words was enough to immobilize her, so overwhelming was its power, and she felt the cold trickle of sickly blood from her nose. The moon seemed to rumble beneath her, as if with the heavy bass of a powerful speaker. One thought crystalized, beautiful in its purity. _He can't hear my thoughts_. Breathing haggardly, she smiled grimly, blood running down over her teeth in a gruesome grimace. _He can only hear me speak. Probably can't see me, either._ "Yes, oh master of darkness," she choked out through her gritted teeth. _This isn't over._ "You have... made your point." _I will rip you to shreds, as soon as I have used you to destroy Zordon and those… power brats._

 _ **Now. A gift. To make the transition easier. The smallest piece of my power.**_

Lightning seemed to strike her again where she lay. Her whole body arced, dark electricity tracing every vein, every cell she had. She screamed again, her body caught in the grip of some kind of seizure. Her hands clasped and unclasped, her legs bucked and kicked. But through the discomfort, something was boiling inside her. Bright beams of red shone out of her mouth, her eyes, blazing into the night sky like a beacon of pure power. A sense of… strength that was not at all physical filled her, and she knew that she could do _anything._

 _ **You have two months. Do not fail me.**_

And with that, a presence in the back of her mind that she hadn't even noticed was there disappeared, and her thoughts came rushing back into the space where it had been like air filling a sudden vacuum. The light faded. He was gone. He wasn't watching anymore. She collapsed, burying her face in the fine dust on the ground, desperately willing her trembling to stop.

Hours passed before she found herself able to move. She groaned, first fumbling for her staff, then using it as a balance to push herself to her feet. She swayed drunkenly for a moment, then shook her head one more time. She needed to get to work.

First things first: a lady needed her own palace. An… empress of evil.

She closed her eyes, murmuring softly to herself as she raised her staff with both hands, perpendicular to the ground. She could feel the power thrum beneath her fingers, the magic that had made her who she was coursing through the solid gold. Above, the impossible clouds began to swirl again, a silent hurricane with its eye directly overhead. Through that eye, she could see the Earth, and she _remembered_ , and the power she gathered swelled. The instant before it burst, she slammed it down into the dusty ground with a _crack_ like a meteor strike. Waves of sheer power rolled out in every direction, a ripple of rock passing through the moon around her like waves in a pond.

There was the briefest pause as the ripple expanded, and explosions of liquified rock shot up in great pillars all around her. The solid geysers rose far above her head. Instead of coming apart and raining back down, they diffused and spread along the top of the streams as though they had struck a great ceiling. Like plaster into the mold.

And as Rita poured malice into the bedrock, a great black castle began to take shape around her. Spires like fingers of dripping wax clawed at the sky, straining to reach the Earth far above. Ramparts and statuary and pillars all fought their way to the surface, streams of rock arcing and whirling and finding each other and connecting. It was chaotic and violent and deafening and breathtaking. The moon itself seemed to groan in pain as a great globe resolved in swirling darkness at the palace's peak.

The motion seemed to reach a crescendo, and Rita lifted her staff - enough structure and will had been forced through the connection that the spell would take it's shape whether she oversaw it or not. She walked forward, past walls rippling like water and through doorways still forming. She stepped outside, and all went still behind her.

Silence.

A slow smile spread across her lips, and she turned to survey her handiwork. It was ugly and pointed and hideous, and it was _perfect_.

But it was missing something.

A name.

Names held meaning. Names held power. The palace from which she would reign deserved- no, _demanded_ a name of power.

And as she gazed up at its cruel majesty, the word came to her.

 _Bandora_.

A word in ancient Eltaran meaning _Death of Hope._ A title that described the herald of the end. The Eltarans had been a mystic people - they had known that one day one of their own would betray them and bring about the genocide of their race.

That story had become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Soon, she would bring ruin to another world. One more that so richly deserved its fate.

"Bandora…" She whispered. "My home."

An Empress needed a kingdom to rule. And so her second spell took shape.

Compared to everything else she'd been through, creating a facsimile of life was easy.

First: she conjured up memories of her old companions. How long had it been since they had drawn breath? Sixty five million years, or a mere matter of weeks. She remembered each of them in turn. Their quirks. Their strengths. The way they had talked. Then, using those images as a center, she _created_. There was another pulse of magic, and putties began to rip their way free of the ground, moon rock and dust coalescing into the great stony beasts. Her footsoldiers. Her army.

And deep within her sanctum, five long dead, but not forgotten memories came to life in greyscale, formed from swirling sands and the very essence of remembrance itself.

A once noble beast of molten gold, great wings spread out to either side. His face was somewhere between leonine and canine, not the smoking, unrecognizable crater that had come from that last fatal blow. Her general.

A woman clad all in gleaming armor, a powerful sword at her side, a scorpion's tail emerging from the small of her back, and a deadly pincer for a left hand, standing close to the first remembrance. Smoky venom dripped from the stinger. Her greatest warrior.

A tall figure covered in dark fur but for his bluish-grey face, crippled bat's wings clinging to his back, a monocle on his eye. Taller than the others, but slim, long canines drooping over his lip. Her alchemist.

An ugly creature with a stocky body and a huge head, covered in lumps and spines, wearing goggles and dull armor. Various tools were strapped to his belt, and he was dotted with heavy plates of metal. Her engineer.

A mousy figure, slightly hunched, in a garment like a lab coat, with a face like a great albino terrier. Milky blue eyes that were almost white, and delicate, long fingered hands. Her artist.

Her advisors. Her friends. All had died for her in her attempted coup. All had given their lives for _her._ All would serve her again.

She felt them - or the dusty sculptures that pretended to be them - take their first breaths, deep inside.

Rita looked up. The great blue and green planet hung there, its people fat and happy and unsuspecting. The Power Rangers unaware of the storm that was coming. Her fingers tightened painfully around her staff, and she cocked her head.

"Now," she whispered. "It's time to conquer Earth."


	4. She Asked Me, Son, When I Grow Old

"That's it, mama. You've got to drink," he said softly, massaging her back with one thin hand. "You don't drink enough without me here."

"Fussy, fussy, Xiaosheng," his mother said, but there was a warmth in her scratchy voice that always made him smile. "My body knows how much water it needs." Still, she lifted the old glass to her lips and took a small sip. The coughing had passed, but she still had to take it easy while her throat was raw.

Xiaosheng - Zack, to everyone but his mother - shook his head. "Mama, why do you have to be so stubborn? You must be dehydrated." Still, he gave her back a gentle, affectionate pat. It felt good to let himself speak mandarin with her. Like… reaching into the past to draw strength from those who had come before him. His own private little morph. "There's nothing wrong with being thirsty."

Mama swallowed, then grimaced. "Mm. I like to keep you on your toes, little one."

He hadn't been shorter than her since he was about ten years old, and as thin as he was, he was nowhere near as wasted away as she was. She looked so fragile, sitting up in that bed of hers that she hardly ever left anymore. Still, she had called him that since he'd barely been able to walk himself, and she wasn't going to let a little thing like reality stop her now. He chuckled, slipping his hand into a pocket and pulling out a pair of small pink pills. "Here, take these. For the pain."

His mother waved him away, then hesitated. Zack raised his eyebrows meaningfully, and she sighed. "Alright, alright, but you know I don't like to take all these pills. The others I can stomach, because they keep me healthy, but these… What is a little pain, now?" Reluctantly, she pressed them into her mouth and washed them down with a little water. She was wreathed in shadow, her crowded little room dim, even in the middle of the day. It was difficult not to read omens into that. It was his mother's preference.

A pang stabbed Zack in the gut, but he kept on smiling anyway. For her. "You'll thank me in a few minutes." As much as she wouldn't admit it, he could see the tightness around her eyes, the way her breath caught in her chest a few times a minute. The pain was bad, and he just hoped it wouldn't get worse. "How about a game? You've been asleep all day."

Mama didn't answer right away, instead reaching out a bony, withered arm to set the glass on her nightstand. "In a minute, Xiaosheng. Mother needs a moment to catch her breath." She leaned back into her pillow and closed her eyes, and for a few moments, Zack thought she had fallen asleep again. "No, no, tell me…" She broke off with a quiet cough, then rubbed at her throat. When she spoke again, her voice was just that much raspier. "Your friends. You went out with them last night, yes?"

Zack took her hand in his and squeezed. She didn't open her eyes, but she smiled. "Yeah, we just hung out on the mountain again. Jason brought the snacks, this time."

"Ah… I do miss nature," she said wistfully. "Of course, the pollen never quite agreed with me, but I loved it anyway. Were all of them there?"

"Yeah, it was all of us." Zack looked around the cluttered little room that she'd spent most of the last six months in and was glad that she wasn't looking at his face. "We had a good time."

Mama nodded. "You spend too much time alone. I'm glad this is changing."

Zack felt his cheeks go warm. "I know, mama, you say that every time we talk about them."

"Well, I want you to hear it," she grumbled. "Tell me something that happened. I want to hear about the things that make you happy."

He rubbed at the back of his neck. "Well… We found out that Kim… You know, Kimberly, plays guitar, and we all told her that next time she has to drag it up. Maybe start that band."

"You haven't played an instrument in seven years," she said, smiling.

"Yeah, but you've heard me sing. I can do some sick punk rock vocals."

Mama shook her head, and finally opened her eyes. "All this talent, and you want to waste it on _punk_."

"Come on, mama," Zack laughed, "Don't hurt me like this. I learned it from you!"

"I know, Xiaosheng," she said fondly. "and I regret it every day."

"Hey, it could be worse," he countered. "I could be Trini. _She's_ into the really dirty stuff like Cradle of Filth. She's not allowed to pick the music anymore."

Mama smiled. "You talk about that one differently than the others. Your face lights up more."

"No, mama, no! It's not like that at all," he protested. "Even if it was, I'm really not her type. Besides, she's already interested in someone else."

"Hmm," said Mama. "A shame. It's about time we found you someone to settle down with."

"Please, mama, you know I'm not the settling down type." Not to mention the fact that he was still trying to deal with the idea of having _friends_. And the fact that he wasn't yet even seventeen.

Mama considered this. "Well, you may be right," she mused. "Though I do think a nice wife would do you good."

"Or a husband," Zack said lightly.

"Wife, husband, I know, dear," she said offhandedly. "You never were a picky eater."

" _Mama_!" Zack cried out, burying his face in his hands.

She broke into chuckles that quickly became a cough. When she'd finished, she shook her head with weary amusement. "Ah, you try to be so gung ho about everything but the moment the slightest impropriety crosses your ears, you go to pieces." She reached over with her free hand to pat his. "I was the same way, dear. Don't worry."

With a smile and a shake of his head, Zack tapped the water glass. Mama grimaced at him and took a sip.

"It really isn't like that with Trini," Zack continued, resolutely changing the subject. "She's…" He struggled to find the words. "She's a lot like me. She's funny, and she thinks I'm funny. If I was gonna rob a bank, she's the one I'd bring without a second thought. But romance? Nah."

His mother studied him for a moment, then nodded. "I believe you, Xiaosheng. Don't worry.". She gave him a slightly brittle smile. "Now, when are you going to bring them home with you?"

Zack didn't answer for a long time. How do you tell someone that you are almost ashamed of the place you live? The others had so much. Jason and Kim's families were very well-to-do. Billy didn't have a big house, but he had all sorts of cool gadgets and tech squirreled away in his basement. Even Trini's family wasn't all that bad off compared to him.

What did this place have to offer? It was the dirty little trailer where he slept, and it was where his mother lay dying. Why would the others want to come _here_?

All he said out loud was, "Soon, mama. I'll bring them around soon." He gave her his most winning smile.

He was saved by the bell. Almost literally. His phone chimed in his pocket, and he pulled it out. It wasn't much to look at. Just a refurbished iphone several generations out of date, with a cracked screen. It worked, though, and he'd keep using it until it had given its last gasp. It was the group chat that Billy had set up for the five of them.

Zack had never had a group chat to share with friends before.

The message was from Kimberly.

 **[Kimberly: did anyone see the news this morning?]**

As he was reading it, four more came in - all from Trini.

 **[Trini: YES]**.

 **[Trini: it was amazing they called us angel grove's guardian angels]**

 **[Trini: its the worst i love it]**

 **[Trini: we yell power rangers all the frikkin time how has that not caught on]**

Zack grinned, and the chat lit up with activity.

 **[Jason: That's the worst one yet]**

 **[Billy: I'm just surprised it took them this long to make that joke.]**

 **[Jason: Lets start a football team and call it the Angel Grove Angels]**

 **[Trini: fukk that i get hit enough these days]**

 **[Jason: It builds character]**

 **[Kimberly: you guys know i'm going to go buy us all halos now, right?]**

 **[Kimberly: and wings. can't forget the wings.]**

 **[Trini: NO]**

 **[Trini: :O]**

Zack glanced up at his mother to see her smiling toothily. "What?"

She waved a hand that was only a little shaky. "Oh, nothing, my dear. It's just nice to see you smile."

Zack stuck out his tongue at her, and she laughed and gently slapped his hand.

 **[Zack** : **i can be ur devil or ur angle]**

 **[Jason: God now you've got him going]**

 **[Kimberly: meme it up zack. shoot for the stars.]**

 **[Zack: \m/]**

He was starting to think, though. Interesting thoughts. A plan began to form in the back of his head. It was probably pretty dumb, and it was really walking the line on one of Zordon's little rules, but… it had potential.

His favorite kind of idea.

Late afternoon, the sun shining through her open window. She hummed softly to herself, the acoustic guitar on her lap pleasantly light in her grip. There was a melody in her head, but that had been the easy part. The hard part was translating it into fingerings and strumming. A chord here, a lone string plucked there… It almost sounded like music.

Almost.

Apparently, it didn't matter how many superpowers you had, or how dexterous they made your fingers, or how immune to the pain of unformed calluses - when it came to making music, you still needed good old fashion _practice._ When had the last time she'd picked up her guitar been? Fifth grade? Sixth?

Her phone buzzed beside her, and she glanced down at the rain of messages coming in on her lock screen.

 **[Trini: UH GUYS]**

 **[Trini: IS ANYONE WATCHING THE NEWS RN]**

 **[Jason: No whats up]**

 **[Trini: WE GOT A RED ALERT]**

 **[Trini: hm]**

 **[Trini: black alert?]**

 **[Billy: You can't just put black in front of words without making it weird!]**

 **[Billy: Stop making it weird!]**

 **[Jason: Lol]**

 **[Trini: asdfsgdsg it doesnt matter]**

 **[Trini: just look at the news]**

Kim frowned, picking up her phone and clicking on the TV. Commercials. What was Trini talking about? With a sigh and a shake of her head, she returned to her attempt at music. A few moments later, the broadcast returned, and what they were talking about was hardly anything surprising.

"...once sleepy fishing hamlet of Angel Grove continues to rebuild after the shocking events of a month ago, as…"

Footage that was familiar to everyone in the world with an internet connection flashed across the screen: hordes of twisted creatures of stone and mud rampant in the streets. An enormous living statue, dripping with molten gold, walking through buildings as if they weren't even there. And what could only be described as a giant robot, rising from a flaming hole in the ground, a (pardon the phrase) guardian angel lifted from the pits of Hell itself.

Kim stopped listening. Rita, Goldar, the Zords…. they were all old news. Bits of the news report faded in and out of her attention like an old radio without a signal as she plucked at the strings, legs dangling from her bed.

"...enigmatic figures disappeared in the confusion following the battle…"

For the first couple weeks, she'd watched every news report she could get her hands on, had devoured what felt like thousands of thinkpieces and armchair analysis blog posts about what had happened in Angel Grove. Billy had made it easy; one of the first afternoons after the battle, he'd compiled a program that would catch and log every major mention of the Power Rangers (not that anyone but them was calling them that - a hundred different nicknames and appellations had attached themselves to the rangers over the past few weeks), but in the end, it hadn't been necessary. You couldn't swing a cat without hitting _someone_ talking about the world's first genuine alien invasion.

"...president has yet to take a stance on the ramifications of the event, amidst calls for…"

Lost in thought, she failed to monitor her still-unnatural strength. A string snapped, shooting back and whipping her hand. She yelped, more out of surprise than pain, and dropped the guitar. It hit the ground with an anguished twang. She glared at it for a moment, as though it were a dear friend who had consciously betrayed her, and sighed. _Some superhero you are, Kim. Defeated by an old guitar._

With a sigh, she bent down to pick it up and set about removing the broken string, hoping that no one downstairs had heard her yell. The _last_ thing she needed was for her parents to come make sure she was behaving herself. They _still_ hadn't quite forgiven her for bending her phone into a donut that one time.

She looked up at the TV, mostly because it was the only other thing in her room that was moving, and froze.

On the screen, a harried looking reporter was rattling off some inane facts about the reconstruction of the town. That was normal. Uninteresting. Kim had helped out enough with rebuilding efforts that the woman wasn't saying anything new.

Behind her, though…

 _Oh, no._

Behind her, the sun glinted off of matte black armor as a towering figure strode directly toward the camera. People on the sidewalks turned and pointed and whispered. One or two took one look, turned, and ran, clearly expecting something catastrophic to happen. The camera itself started to shake, as if the person holding it suddenly couldn't maintain their calm, and the reporter frowned, trailing off midsentence. "Al," she said with clear concern, "are you alright?"

The cameraman didn't get a chance to respond, before a black gloved hand patted the woman's shoulder.

She froze.

The black ranger snapped a one-handed fingergun at the camera, his other hand resting on the reporter's arm as though she were an old friend. "Yo." The voice was distorted and mechanical, but even without the suit Kim would recognize that cocky tone anywhere.

"Oh, you stupid son of a bitch," Kimberly said to the TV.


	5. You Were Incredible (Hey, Shut Up)

_It took me longer to write this chapter than the whole rest of the fic combined._

 _Sorry! I discourage myself real easy, but I'm back!_

* * *

There Zack stood on the screen, real as a heart attack and twice as dumb. If he was planning to blab their names all over the news, shit was going to go down. She'd beat the hell out of him, for one. For two… Zordon had made them swear to keep their identities _secret._ Kim wasn't exactly clear on what the consequences would be, but she wasn't keen on finding out. And what would the _world_ do if they knew who they were?

Kim had read enough sci-fi to know that the government finding out about your superpowers and hyper-advanced alien tech was a one way trip to a bad time.

"Karen… Can I call you Karen?" Zack's modulated voice was unmistakably friendly, but the reporter looked as though the fingergun had been a .45 pointed at her face.

"Um," she managed, the cogs clearly ticking away in her mind. Fight or flight? No one had ever gotten one of them this close on camera before; this could be big for her. Kim could see the moment when she decided to go for it. "Of course," she said, her reporter's mask sliding back into place with an almost audible _click_.

 **[Jason: Alright we need to do something]**

 **[Trini: no shit?]**

 **[Trini: guide us, fearless leader]**

"Alright, Karen," Zack replied, and Kim could _hear_ the smug grin on his face behind the mask. "I'm here to set the record straight on a few things. You know, nothing big or anything. Just next time we kick some monster's a **[bleep]** and save the city, I think we should get proper credit."

"Credit?" Karen looked baffled. "We've been reporting on you ever since the attack."

 **[Jason: Billy you know tech can you cut the feed somehow]**

 **[Billy: Sure, if I had a line into the network or the newsvan. Without that I wouldn't even know where to start.]**

 **[Trini: pathetic]**

 **[Billy: This isn't my area of expertise!]**

 **[Jason: Not now Trini]**

"I know, and that's great! We deserve it, because we're f **[bleep]** g awesome. Just, you guys don't seem to have picked up on our _very_ subtle hints."

"Hints?"

"You can call us…" Zack struck a pose, knees bent, one fist in front of him, the other hand spread to the side. "...the _Power Rangers."_

 **[Trini: this is ur fkn fault kim u brought up the name thing]**

 **[Jason: I assume he doesnt have his phone on him]**

 **[Kimberly: that, or he's ignoring it blowing up in his pocket. either way that's not gonna work.]**

"Power Rangers…" Karen said, putting an odd emphasis on the second word. She seemed like she was feeling them out, tasting how they would feel in a broadcast. "And… what are Power Rangers?"

 _Oh, god. Here it comes._

"Heh." Zack flicked his thumb across the lips of his helmet as if wiping off blood after a fight, then crossed his arms dramatically. "The Power Rangers are a legion of warriors, sworn to protect life!"

 **[trini: it was cooler when zordon said it]**

 **[Jason: Focus]**

A few different emotions warred on Karen's face. "And... who are you, exactly?"

"Can't tell you that, Kare-bear," Zack said airily, giving the woman's shoulder a playful punch. "We don't need _that_ much credit."

 **[Billy: Oh, thank god.]**

 **[Kim: we're still gonna have to kick his ass, but at least he wasn't as stupid as he could have been.]**

"But you're heroes," Karen pressed. "Surely you'd be celebrated. You five… Power Rangers… saved the world. You could have anything you wanted!"

Zack put his hands on his hips, and looked down at the ground for a moment. "Yeah, it would be pretty great, huh? But here's the thing. We all have loved ones. And they're clean, you know? We don't want our enemies to be their enemies. They could get hurt that way."

Kim paused. That was… shockingly mature?

"And besides. We all made a promise. We're not doing it for the recognition. We're doing it because it's the right thing to do."

Karen seemed to sense the impromptu interview slipping away from her. "So are you human, then?" she asked with a bit of a laugh. "Surely you can tell us that much."

Zack shrugged emphatically. "Some of us," he answered mysteriously.

The reporter didn't seem to know what to do with that. "Are…" She cleared her throat. "Are you serious?"

"Doesn't matter what we are. Doesn't matter who we are," he said seriously. "Humans, aliens, robots. We're here for one reason."

"Robots?" she asked weakly.

 **[Billy: Man, the military is gonna come down on us so hard if they think we're not human.]**

 **[Billy: I don't want to get dissected!]**

 **[Trini: speak for urself]**

"We're here to keep the Earth safe," Zack said, looking directly into the camera. "That monster last month? His name was Goldar, and he was created by an alien named Rita Repulsa. She's… well, she's a space witch with a fetish for gold, basically."

"I… suppose I don't have any other explanation for what we all saw," she said hesitantly.

"Also doesn't matter if you believe me about that. As long as you believe," he continued, and _you_ clearly didn't refer to the reporter, "that we are here to protect you. The Power Rangers, all of us, just want to make sure people like her don't get to hurt people like you." He pounded a fist against his chest. "Earth is under our protection!"

With that said, he nodded once at the camera, blew a kiss at the reporter, turned, and leaped into the air and off the screen. A faint whooping echoed from far away.

The reporter just stood there, looking dumbfounded. She stared after the direction Zack had gone, microphone still held out in front of her as though she were still giving an interview. "What the f **[bleep]** k was that?"

A few moments later, Zack re-entered the conversation.

 **[Zack: hell YEAH that was cool]**

 **[Kim: what the hell were you thinking?]**

 **[Zack: come on you were sick of the way they talk about us too]**

 **[Zack: we're gonna be on tv either way they might as well get our team name right!]**

 **[Jason: Okay we all need to talk about this]**

 **[Jason: Can we meet in twenty]**

 **[Trini: ye]**

 **[Billy: I can.]**

 **[Kim: i'm free.]**

 **[Zack: yeah yeah okay]**

 **[Trini: where]**

 **[Jason: I dont have a ride and im at the gym]**

 **[Trini: wtf r u doing at the gym you have super powers]**

 **[Jason: Not the point]**

 **[Kimberly: well, the youth center just opened up that new juice bar a block or two over. we could meet there?]**

 **[Zack: youth center? what is this, the eighties]**

 **[Zack: are we in a john hughes movie]**

 **[Zack: listen jase by establishing the youth center you just started a Countdown to the inevitable subplot where we have to save the youth center from the Man]**

 **[Trini: is it the final countdown]**

 **[Zack: hehehe]**

 **[Trini: hehehe]**

 **[Billy: I know that song!]**

 **[Jason: I regret everything i've ever done]**

The biggest hangout place for teens in Angel Grove was an old video store that had recently been converted into an oversized Starbucks. Plenty of comfortable seating, nice faux-wood paneling, a playlist that reasonably approximated cool, and overpriced coffee that appealed to the town's higher-than-average population of wannabe hipsters.

That is, it _had_ been, until it had been unfortunately leveled in the same monstrous rampage that had claimed a Krispy Kreme, two McDonalds, an In-N-Out, and a Burger King. (The one Dunkin' Donuts in town had been left miraculously untouched, if surrounded by rubble, but there seemed to be an unspoken agreement among Angel Grove's youth that, out of respect for the fallen Krispy Kreme, the town was pastry-fasting.)

A few weeks before Angel Grove had gotten its shit thoroughly wrecked, a local businessman had opened the aforementioned juice bar downtown. Apparently, it was a bit of a passion project for the guy; he hadn't been able to find enough investors on his own, so he'd struck a deal with the town. They'd fund the place if he ran it as an extension of the local youth center.

Ernie's purported to be a gym and juice bar, but apart from some sparring maps and one or two pieces of gymnastics equipment, the last time Kim had visited there hadn't been a treadmill or weight machine in sight. That didn't seem to have changed, but there were a dozen or so teens scattered throughout the establishment in small clumps, which was a little surprising. The place was colorful and plastic and more than a little 90's. It was charming.

Jason was already seated at one of the tables by the far wall, a smoothie sitting half-finished in front of him. Billy sat across from him, an unmarked red water bottle clutched tightly in one hand, gesticulating excitedly with the other. He paused his story, catching a glimpse of her from the corner of his eye, and raised a hand to wave her over. Jason shook his head at Billy, smiling, and raised his smoothie to take a drink.

Kim rolled her eyes and started toward them, but a big, friendly voice interrupted her. "Hey! Kimmie, right?"

Kim froze.

Behind the counter, also waving, was Ernie. True to his voice, Ernie was a big, friendly guy who had an uncanny ability to almost remember your name after a single encounter. "Come on over here! What're you havin'?"

Kim was halfway between mortified and amused, but Ernie's smile was infectious. She grinned a little, diverting over to the counter. She leaned on it, a little awkwardly. "It's, uh, Kimberly, but you were close."

Jason was covering his mouth and laughing, and Kim had to repress the urge to shoot him the bird.

Her eyes tracked over the shelves behind the bar. Mixers, blenders, machines she couldn't even begin to guess at the function of. Fridges, doubtless full of juice, ice machines, bowls heaped with mounds of the juiciest looking fruit Kim had ever seen. There was a sweet, ice cream-y smell wafting from somewhere behind Ernie, who was wearing perhaps the ugliest hawaiian shirt Kim had ever seen in her entire life.

Somehow, it fit him.

Ernie gave his forehead an exaggerated slap, shaking his head. "Kimberly, Kimberly. Ah, I'll getcha next time, yeah?" He spread his arms wide. "Mi casa es su casa," he said in a cartoonish Brooklyn accent that seemed to be his genuine voice.

Kim snorted. "I'm guessing you've got strawberries. Strawberry smoothie?"

Ernie gave the counter a quick bada-bap, then winked. "Stawberry smoothie it is, Kimberly." He turned back to his row of contraptions, and set about gathering ingredients. "I'll have it out for ya in no time. Have a seat, I'll find ya when it's ready."

Kim blinked slowly. "You're not going to ask me to pay?"

"Customer's first time is always on the house," he said cheerfully, without turning around.

She glanced back at Jason and Billy; Billy had resumed whatever his story was, and Jason was nodding gamely. "I've been here before, though," she said cautiously.

"Didn't buy anything, though," he replied absently. "Those two friends of yours did, but you said you didn't have an appetite."

 _He can remember all that?_ "Uh… huh." Kim gave his back a nod and a smile, then scooted over to the table where her two friends were sitting.

They both looked at her expectantly.

"I think the owner is hitting on me," she whispered.

Jason snorted, raising his plastic cup in a halfway toast. "That's just Ernie. The way he runs this place, he'll be out of business before the month is out."

Billy grimaced. "Oh man, I hope not. He knows how to make a good smoothie." He started to continue, interrupted himself with a little laugh, and tried again. "You missed it earlier, but Jason made a pretty funny joke about us having to do a fundraiser or something. I mean, I think it was probably funny. Uh, because you know Zack said the thing about it being like in a movie, and Jason-"

Kim just blinked as Jason tapped Billy's hand with an embarrassed smile. "It's alright, bud, I think she gets it."

Billy spluttered to a halt, then looked between the two of them. "Right, right. Sorry."

Kim flashed him a wink. "It's all good, Bill. I'm always up for hearing about the dumb shit Jason says when I'm not around."

Jason groaned.

"Anyway, anyone heard from our wayward media darling?"

They shook their heads. Jason's face darkened. "I can't believe he did that."

"Is it really that big a deal?" Billy asked. "I mean, he didn't actually say anything with a lot of substance, did he? Nothing that would lead people back to us, at least."

"It's the principle of the thing," Jason countered. "We can't all be just running off to talk to the media or whoever all the time. We're superheroes now. That means we have a responsibility to be careful about what we say. We could cause a panic."

Kim opened her mouth to respond, but a wry voice interrupted from behind her. "I'm sure the words 'space witch' are striking fear into the hearts of the entire world as we speak," Trini said.

"Not the point!" Jason yelled a little too loudly, drawing some attention from people nearby.

They all took a minute to awkwardly stare at each other, at least until the eavesdroppers got tired of waiting to see what _was_ the point.

"Then what is? People should have some idea of what they're up against. People died last time, and they had no idea what for." Trini's voice was surprisingly serious as she circled around to stand next to Kim. "They deserved a chance to prepare."

Kim wasn't so sure about that line of reasoning. "But everyone knows about that attack. Footage of Goldar and the putties is everywhere. Us sticking our noses into the public eye isn't going to make people take that any more seriously than they already are."

Jason sighed but raised a hand. "Let's save it for when Zack gets here. We all need to talk about this together."

With a grumble, Trini wandered off to the bar to order herself a smoothie; when she came back, she was carrying Kim's as well. "I think the owner was hitting on me," she whispered.

Zack sauntered in about ten minutes later, the image of the conquering hero. "What's up, Angel Groooooove!"

All conversation in the juice bar died.

Trini covered her face in her hands.

"Zack, my man!" Ernie called back, into the silence. "The usual?"

Zack threw him a couple of fingerguns. "You know it!" That transaction complete, he swaggered over to where the other rangers were sitting, grabbed an empty chair, and swung it around backward before sitting in it.

They all stared at him.

He blinked. "What?"

Jason was the first to move, leaning over and slapping his friend upside the head. "Dumbass!" He hissed.

"What the hell?" Zack hissed back. "What'd I do?"

"What'd you-" Kim was incredulous. "What'd you _do?"_

"They're mad 'cause you went on the news without talking to us," Billy put in helpfully.

"I was doing us a favor!" Zack protested. "At least now they'll get our names right, you know?"

Trini moaned pitifully into her hands. "I was trying to defend you when _that's_ your justification?"

"We're a team," Jason said. "That means we don't run off and do stupid things without talking to each other about it."

"Talking to _you_ about it, maybe," Zack said, leaning forward over the back of his chair, his voice a heated whisper. "Just because Zordon made you the leader, it doesn't mean you get the final say on everything."

"That's not what he's trying to say," Kim said gently. "He just wants to make sure we don't get ourselves hurt."

Zack leaned back in his chair. "Get ourselves hurt? Oh, man. That's good. We're not kids, Jason, and you're not even the oldest one here. You're not our dad."

Jason grimaced. "I'm not trying to be-"

"But you're doing a pretty good job of it."

 _This is getting out of hand,_ Kim thought. _Like it did that day in the caves._ But she didn't know what to say to disarm the situation.

Billy raised his hand. "I thought we were past all this fighting with each other."

Zack rolled his eyes. "I'm not gonna sock him this time, but I'm not just gonna roll over and let him try to control us."

" _Control_ you?" Jason leaned in. "I'm not trying to control anyone!"

Zack crossed his arms. "Then tell me what I did wrong. Exactly. What'd I say that's gonna cause trouble down the line?"

Jason sputtered.

"Exactly. I rest my-"

"Hey, you guys are in Saturday detention too, right?"

The five of them froze.

Standing off to the side was a boy that Kim vaguely recognized from, yes, detention. He was about their age, if not a little younger, and he was almost as short as Trini, but his arms were wiry with lean muscle, like a tiger. His straight black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and his face was open and earnest. What was his name? Timmy? Tony? Something like that. His karate gi was green, and dark with sweat.

Jason smiled uncomfortably. "Hey, yeah. Tommy, right? What's up?"

The boy shrugged, and smiled a little shyly. "Well, I've just seen you around the gym and juice bar before," he said, his voice soft and as earnest as his face. "I'm new here. Just moved in from Stone Canyon."

He just kept standing there for a minute in complete and utter silence, and Kim got the feeling he was about as socially adept as… any of the rest of them. He seemed to notice that he had five people waiting on him to continue. "What I mean is that… You never seem like you have anyone to workout with, so I was wondering if you wanted a partner." He paused. "A workout partner." He paused again. "For working out."

He sighed. "Okay, starting over. I'm Tommy. I'm new. I've seen you before. Want to be my workout partner? Can't do this stuff by myself all the time, and I've seen you help some other guys but not really… You know what, I'm gonna..." He pointed off toward the door, but Jason stopped him with a real and one hundred percent genuine laugh.

Kim, Jason, Trini, and Zack looked from the boy to Jason. _This oughta be interesting,_ Kim thought.

Jason made a spectacle out of seeming to weigh his options, a completely different person than who he'd been a few minutes before. "You know what, yeah. None of these jerks want to work out with me. They can't handle all this muscle and badassery. You gonna be around on Wednesday? Around this time?"

 _Huh._

"Yeah, man," the boy said, looking relieved. He broke out in a wide grin. "I was planning to do some weight training. I could use a spotter?"

Jason offered a solemn bro fist. Tommy rapped his knuckles against Jason's and nodded. "I'll see you then?" He asked timidly.

Jason nodded. "See you then, dude."

Tommy walked off as the five of them sat in silence, but he turned around halfway to the door, went back to the table he'd stopped at, picked up an overstuffed duffle bag, and then left.

They watched him go.

"We need to be better about talking about this stuff in public," Kim said.

Zack nodded. "That was way stupider of us than the news thing. Did we say anything incriminating? Like, 'Oh, yeah, I have super powers. Just a warning.'"

Billy grimaced. "Not when Tommy was hanging around, but before that…"

Jason groaned and put his head down on the table.

"You okay there, bud?" Trini asked, a feline grin on her face.

"I have superpowers," Jason said, his voice muffled. "If I have someone up my ass, I'm going to have to pretend to be normal. I'm going to have to restrain myself and try not to break him in half."

Zack gave him a pat on the back. "Now who's putting themselves in a compromising position?"

Jason punched Zack in the arm without looking up.

It wasn't a normal people punch, either.

* * *

 _Chapter title is from Andy, You're A Star by The Killers!_

 _Comments are appreciated! Share with all your friends!_

 _See y'all sooner than four months from now, jesus._


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